‘I’ve also got a very soft voice’

Here are more photos from Tuesday’s palace reception marking the late Queen Elizabeth II’s 100th birthday. While the Prince and Princess of Wales totally skipped the earlier memorial service at the British Museum, they turned up for this palace reception. Kate wore a lilac Emilia Wickstead dress and QEII’s three-strand pearl necklace, as well as the same Bahrain pearl-and-diamond earrings she always gets to borrow. Sidenote: I think Kate always gets those earrings because Camilla hordes the bigger, more impressive pieces. The left-behinds also posed for a “working royal” portrait, which is just as unseasoned and dusty as can be. It’s perfect.

Anyway, in many of the photos, you can see that Kate once again plopped a hairpiece onto the back of her head. I’m constantly aghast that her hair stylists let her wander around like that. She’s also rocking yet another finger band-aid, which was a really common occurrence back in 2023, before the “Kate Missington” saga. I’m actually getting 2023 vibes across the board with Kate, which is concerning. Meanwhile, Kate also mumbled some words at the palace reception:

Kate Middleton offered an honest comment about what she finds tricky about some royal situations at a Buckingham Palace reception commemorating Queen Elizabeth’s 100th birthday.

The Princess of Wales, 44, shared her take at the palace party on April 21 while speaking to a small group of women.

“I find these environments are really hard. I’ve also got a very soft voice, so I always get told, ‘Speak up a bit louder!’ ” Princess Kate said in fan footage shared to X, as the rest of the reception buzzed in the background.

The Princess of Wales took on a working royal role after she married Prince William in 2011 and previously revealed that a childhood nickname of hers was Squeak.

[From People]

She does have a soft voice, and she’s never learned how to speak up or project her voice, even for her rare public speeches. She’s never going to learn how to do it either – she’s 44, and she’s been in this public role for 15 years. She’s just not going to do it. This is her brand: soft-spoken mumbling, gawping, jazz hands. She’s also trying to add “hugger” to her brand again – she goes through phases where she forgets to hug people, but something happened recently (the Sussexes’ Australian tour) which reminded Kate that she too is tactile and a hugger. She tried to awkwardly hug an older guy and he had no idea where to put his hands so he ended up briefly resting his hands on her waist and then her hips. She deftly moved his hands away.

The Princess of Wales hugging George Cross hero Tony Gledhill, 88, today.
He looked emotional as he shared a moment with Catherine,
explaining afterwards that his wife had recently died – and she had told him he must attend the palace event before she died. pic.twitter.com/m4cQmJ87iR

— Rebecca English (@RE_DailyMail) April 21, 2026

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.